RHEED and XPS studies of the decomposition of silicon dioxide by the bombardment of metal ions

In this paper, we report the RHEED and XPS studies of the decomposition of silicon dioxide by the bombardment of metal ions and the growth of ultrathi n crystalline zirconia oxide film on silicon. Through XPS analysis, it was found that silicon dioxide could be decomposed by the bombardment of Zr ion s in high temperature and lower partial pressure. Silicon dioxide was decom posed into evaporated silicon oxide, while part of the oxygen in silicon di oxide reacted with metal Zr ions to form stable zirconia oxide film. The me tal ions reacted with silicon dioxide homogenously. Because of the smoothne ss of native silicon dioxide surface and atomically abrupt silicon dioxide interface with silicon, native oxide layer on silicon wafer was evenly remo ved and a sharp stable crystalline zirconia oxide interface with silicon wa s formed. The crystalline yittria-stabilized zirconia oxide (YSZ) film with equivalent electrical oxide thickness 1.46 nm show excellent electrical pr operties, the interface state density less than 2 x 10(11) eV(-1)cm(-2) and leakage current 1.1 X 10(-3) A/cm(2) at 1.0 V bias. It demonstrates that t his method can be used to the deposition of high-kappa metal oxide as alter native dielectrics for future generation device.